Wanted
HEADLINE: ** Existential Nightmare **
Title: WANTED
Quality: * * * Acceptability: -4
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LLL
Violence: VVV
Sex: SS
Nudity: NN
RATING: R
RELEASE: June 27, 2008
TIME: 110 minutes
STARRING: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, and Common
DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
PRODUCERS: Marc Paltt, Jim Lemley, Jason Netter, and Iain Smith
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Adam Siegel, Marc Silvestri, Roger Birnbaum, and Gary Barber
WRITER: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan
BASED ON THE COMIC BOOK SERIES BY: Mark Millar and J.G. Jones
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures/General Electric
CONTENT: (HHH, PaPa, B, FRFR, LLL, VVV, SS, NN, AA, D, MM) Very strong humanist, existentialist, libertarian, almost nihilistic worldview extolling making selfish choices so that the individual is in control of his destiny rather than other outside forces, with some competing worldviews such as a pagan one that talks about Fate (in a metaphor borrowed from Greek mythology about the Fates looming one's destiny) determining whom to kill so that some kind of "balance," including apparently moral balance, can be maintained in the universe, and woman accepts the Fate construct because she comes to believe that there's a final "moral" goal to it that requires the assassination of allegedly evil people, plus some moral relativism about assassinating evil people instead of bringing them to some kind of justice that might (or might not) reflect God's Law in the Bible; at least 105 mostly strong obscenities, three strong profanities, 12 light profanities, some crude vulgarities, and a couple obscene gestures; extreme violence with much blood and some gore includes images of assassin bullets in slow motion piercing people's heads, car chases, explosions, knife fights, man tied up and beaten repeatedly, people shot dead, man hits guy with computer keyboard which knocks him out cold, and eye-popping special effects involving a huge train derailment on a railroad bridge between two mountain tunnels; depicted fornication in two scenes (people are mostly clothed) and man lives with his girlfriend who cheats on him; men ogle backside of beautiful woman in one shot, rear female nudity in another shot, woman in bra, female cleavage, and some upper and brief rear male nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking; and, assassins at times are shown to be the "good" guys so there is some moral relativism, lying and deceit.
GENRE: Action Thriller
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers and adults
Please address your comments to:
Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman/CEO, General Electric
Jeff Zucker, President/CEO, NBC Universal Entertainment
Ron Meyer, President/COO, Universal Studios
Marc Shmuger, Chairman & David Linde, Co-Chairman, Universal Pictures
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608-1085
Phone: (818) 777-1000
Web Page: www.universalstudios.com
SUMMARY: WANTED stars James McAvoy as Wesley, a wimpy accountant who discovers that his late father was part of an elite-centuries old group of assassins who kill bad guys in order to restore "balance" to the universe. WANTED is an excessively violent, obscene, nihilistic piece of entertainment where there are no transcendent values and no transcendent meaning other than one's own ego.
IN BRIEF:
WANTED stars James McAvoy as Wesley, a wimpy accountant who suffers panic attacks, especially when his mean witch of a boss yells at him. Enter a beautiful assassin named Fox, played by Angelina Jolie. She saves Wes from an apparent assassin in a deadly shootout and car chase along the streets of Chicago. Fox is part of an elite, centuries-old group of assassins called the Fraternity. The Fraternity is pledged to carry out the unbreakable orders of the Loom of Fate, which tells them which bad guys to assassinate in order to restore "balance" to the universe. The Fraternity members tell Wes that his father, a Fraternity assassin, was killed by the same man who tried to kill him.
The eye-popping action scenes in WANTED are peppered with bloody, sadomasochistic shots of human destruction, an excessive number of strong obscenities, two sex scenes, and brief nudity. In the end, the movie's pagan references to Fate give way to a celebration of existential delight, where each human being controls his destiny. This is an abhorrent kind of nihilism where there are no transcendent values and no transcendent meaning other than one's own ego.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
